


And yesterday things went on just as usual

by AlexZorlok



Category: Pandora Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Gen, Ghosts, Hurt/Comfort, Mystery, a bit - Freeform, can't go without this in a story about dead people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:14:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27701893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexZorlok/pseuds/AlexZorlok
Summary: Elliot tries to take a step forward, he desperately wants to, but he feels frozen to the spot. He closes his eyes for a moment and, when he opens them again, finally takes in the full picture of a girl, that gradually becomes clearer by the second.Because there is a girl in the room.orA movie night gone wrong.
Relationships: Alice & Gilbert Nightray, Alyss | Intention of the Abyss & Cheshire, Cheshire & Elliot Nightray, Leo Baskerville & Elliot Nightray, Oz Vessalius & Alyss | Intention of the Abyss
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7
Collections: Pandora Hearts Reverse Bang 2020





	And yesterday things went on just as usual

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there! Very happy to finally present you with this work! It's a collab with wonderful @ BarbaraRoDoodle, please check out the inspiration artwork right here  
> https://twitter.com/BarbaraRoDoodle/status/1334882778895290370?s=19

This sleepover was destined to be a disaster.

Not that Elliot wanted it to be perfect or anything. Elliot  _ knew _ that it would turn out like this, one way or another, at some point of the night. If it hadn’t been this, it would have been Alice punching the TV for a bet no one ever placed, or Leo spoiling the plot of the movie every five minutes ahead even though it’s not even an adaptation, or damn Vincent crashing in, pleading Gilbert to help him hide a body or whatever their extravagant brother might need assistance with. And if, by some holy miracle, it hadn’t been any of this, it would have probably been a ghost rising from the death realm to taunt them.

Still, Elliot is _ a little _ more than a little offended.

“Gilbert, I swear to God if you don’t come down here this second and don’t start acting like a goddamn grown man!—”

He’s yelling. He realises that he’s yelling, hears the way his own voice sounds a bit higher-pitched, but, to be frank, he doesn’t care in the slightest.

He hears Leo sigh behind his back, the sound that makes his shoulder twitch just a tiny bit in annoyance, but Elliot shakes it off. This isn’t about Leo and whose side the bastard is on right now. This isn’t even about the way Oz is snickering, also someplace outside his vision. No.

This is about Nepeta.

“Meow!”

This short high-pitched sound distresses Gilbert more than any of Elliot’s yelling. He lets out a whimpering sound and stumbles a step behind on the couch— which is incredible, truly, because his back is already pressed against the back of it, and the soft material would have made any other man fall down a while ago.

Elliot scoops the cat up in his arms, holding it on his eye level. Gilbert would probably say that he’s about to faint from the tension of not one, but two equally angry pairs of eyes glaring at him, but the truth is that the cat’s head is turned away from him, completely disinterested, while Elliot is shorter than him by a full head, so not that much of a threat, if you ask Leo.

“Hey, I’m out of popcorn.”

Elliot turns his head to the source of the voice, blinking, confused. Alice is seated comfortably on the bean bag at the foot of the couch, squinting to find any sweet salty remains at the bottom of her bowl.

“What.”

“Popcorn.”

She shakes the bowl to demonstrate, and it barely makes any sound. Elliot feels his blood starting to boil again, especially after Oz, still somewhere behind his back, not so subtly bursts into a fit of giggles. The cat purrs against where its belly is pressed to Elliot’s chest, and he exhales.

It’s okay, he thinks. This is just a level A emergency, something that was always to be considered.

“Yes, of course… Leo.”

“We’re not opening the rest until the start of the movie.” Leo muses. “Sorry, Alice.”

She hums, quietly, to herself. Then places the now-empty bowl right below the coffee table and stands up. For a moment, everything is quiet. Then— 

“Ouch!” Gilbert coughs out. The only thing that is still holding him upright on the couch is a quick reflex of holding onto the back of it. “Stupid rabbit, what are you—  _ Ouch! _ ”

Alice kicks him in the shin once again, and this time Gilbert does slide down, although maybe not so much out of pain than just for the opportunity to grab the girl by her elbow, now that they are on even levels.

“What is wrong with you?!”

“Leo said there won’t be any snacks until we start the movie, and you’re the only one delaying it! Stupid seaweed.”

Alice sticks her tongue out at him. Gilbert tries to kick her, but it smoothly falls into one of those slapping competitions you could see in between babies on TV. Or in between cats.

“She’s right though.” Oz lets out in between chuckles. He finally moves from where he was leaning against the doorway, past Elliot, shoving him just slightly with his shoulder — on purpose, definitely on purpose, — and he joins Gilbert on the couch. “Nothing personal, Gil.”

The man tries to grumble and turns his head to look at Oz, but his eyes get distracted by the little animal still cozy in Elliot’s arms, and the sound ends up sounding more like a whimper. Elliot rolls his eyes.

“Good.” he mumbles. “Thank you, Alice.”

“Popcorn!”

Elliot lets the cat back down on the floor, and it walks a circle around his feet before heading after Leo to the kitchen. Gilbert visibly flinches at these actions, but there is Oz pressing him into one of the couch arms, and Alice leaning her back against his legs, so he’s rather limited in movements.

Good, Elliot thinks.

He’s crouching down in front of the tv, looking for the right dvd, when he feels Oz going out of his way to nudge him with his foot.

“What’d you name your cat, anyway?” he asks, a smile evident in his voice.

Elliot has always wanted a cat. Ever since he was little and watched Garfield, and Tom and Jerry, and saw that cute little black cat called Mittens in the Bolt movie. That, of course, meant that he’s never planned on getting a cat. Not until Leo stopped him at a walk one day, anyway, pointing at an animal shelter just in front of them and convincing the guy that maybe ‘having two roommates can be better than one’.

They ended up getting a two year old black stray.

“Nepeta.”

Oz hums in response. “Lame.”

“La-ame!” Alice agrees. “Couldn’t you name him something cooler? Like Cheshire. He looks like a Cheshire.”

“It’s a girl.” Elliot remarks, still with his back turned to them. He spends another silent moment putting the movie in, then proceeds: “It’s flower language. Means happiness, fertility...and love.”

“Aww, you’re so cheesy, Elliot.”

Leo shakes his head as he walks into the room, a newly filled bowl of popcorn in his hands. He’s looking right at Elliot, and the Nightray can barely see his eyes behind the hair and the glasses, but he just  _ knows _ what kind of a sparkle is in his gaze right now.

“You were the one to come up with that!—” he snaps, pink dust covering his cheeks. “God, you all are gonna drive me to an early grave tonight...”

“We love you too, Elliot.” Oz chuckles, and Alice echoes him, at the same time snatching the refilled bowl from Leo’s hands.

“Love you too, Elliot.”

Gilbert joins in at that, awkward smile on his face and even more awkward thumbs pointing up. Elliot resists the urge to roll his eyes. At least Gilbert is trying. Maybe he should give his stupid big brother some credit for that.

When they finally settle in front of the tv together, he actually feels peaceful, more content with himself and with the idea of tonight. He rests his cheek against one of his palms, elbow propped up against the arm of the couch. There’s Leo at his right side — seated on one of the kitchen chairs the wrong way around, — Alice back at the bean bag, and Oz with his brother on the other side of the couch. Nepeta makes her way onto his knees quietly, passing around the legs of Leo’s chair first, and then jumping up. Elliot lazily sends a glance to the other side, but Gilbert is too engrossed in whispering replies to both Oz’s and Alice’s dumb questions, that may or may not have any relevance at all to the movie. Elliot lets a smile make its way onto his face. It’s nice, really.

Then the lights turn off, along with the tv.

“Crap.”

Elliot’s smile dissolves into a frown quickly as he stands up, the cat jumping off him in the process.

“Leo, give me a hand here.” he throws back as he heads into the kitchen in hope of finding the electricity meter. “We’ll be right back.”

He glances outside the window and is rather unpleased to find out that all the neighborhood windows are brightly lit up. Elliot knows it would be even more rare for the whole area to run out of electricity than for their little cheap apartment to malfunction, but still, it would be nice to have someone else to curse under his breath, besides himself, for a change.

He stands up on a chair by one of the kitchen walls and flips the switch a couple of times, Leo standing on the floor and flashing the phone light at him. Nothing happens. Elliot groans.

“Hey, Leo and I might have to call an electrician, so I guess tonight is—”

He stops in the doorway to the living room, sentence left unfinished, when he registers a dim light flashing where the tv is placed in front of the couch. At first, he thinks that one of his guests must have lit up a candle while he was gone, nevermind that the light is coloured a cold shade of light blue, and its radius is that of a dozen of candles at least. Then, he blinks a couple of times, and the light shapes into a human figure.

The next action is quick.

Gilbert lets out a pierced yelp, just as Leo whistles, having also stopped in the doorway.

Elliot reaches back into the kitchen, almost stumbles at his own feet in the process, hits the back of his head against the door, grabs the broom that is stashed into the corner and swirls it forward as one would a sword.

The next moment is silent.

Elliot squints at the blurred figure.

“...Alice?”

“Yeah?”

Elliot glances down to see the girl turning to face him, still on her bean bag chair and with the same bowl on her knees. He blinks. Then lifts his eyes to the  _ other  _ Alice standing in between the tv and the coffee table.

Floating, that is.

Elliot gulps.

“Everyone behind my back.” he says, a hushed whisper, almost stuttering in the middle. He lets out a broken breath right after that, but he stands up firmly, as he steadies his hands on the broomstick.

“Elliot...”

Leo exchanges a glance with him, then takes a step closer to his side, hand on his shoulder.

“Hey—” Alice starts, her loud voice almost hurting the ears in the overall quiet of the room, but, before she can finish her sentence, the cat makes a couple of long strides and stops just by her feet, staring up at the figure.

“Meow!”

“Nepeta—!”

Elliot tries to take a step forward, he desperately wants to, but he feels frozen to the spot. He closes his eyes for a moment and, when he opens them again, finally takes in the full picture of a girl, that gradually becomes clearer by the second.

Because there is a girl in the room.

Pale skin, light hair. An old looking dress with puffed sleeves and various bows, bare feet.

If Elliot had thought that she looked similar to Alice before, it was nothing compared to how their resemblance was now that he’s got a better look.

For a split second Elliot wonders, in awe, whether their eyes are about to meet, whether he’s about to get even deeper into this surreal entity. But instead, the girl lowers herself onto the floor, to her knees, and reaches out a hand to Elliot’s cat.

“Oh, my..!” she exclaims, her voice soft and teary.

Elliot takes a cautious step forward, Leo alongside him. They stop on the level of the couch, and it’s then that Elliot can finally spare a glance at Oz and Gilbert, who have so far remained quiet. Gilbert looks like he’s lost all the ability to move or speak, staring ahead with wide eyes and otherwise empty expression. Oz, on the other hand, looks way more alive than his brother, although Elliot does catch a glimpse of perplexion on his face, if only for a second.

“Hi...” the girl whispers softly, her eyes focused solely on the cat. “Hi there.”

“Hello!”

She seems rather startled by the sound of Alice’s voice this time, and immediately looks at the whole group, as if she hasn’t realised there were people in the room, up until this moment. She nods shyly at them, a weird greeting for a ghost.

Because a ghost is what she is, isn’t she?

“Hel—”

“What are you?!” Gilbert blurts out, suddenly gaining back his ability to speak. He’s bewildered, lips twitching and eyes going round. Oz calmly puts a hand on his sleeve.

“Gil...”

The ghost looks at them with hesitation.

“I am...” she breaks off. Nepeta gives her hand a soft nudge in that moment and she exhales. “My name is Alyss.”

The group turns their eyes to their friend sitting in the bean bag, then back to the white haired girl.

“...Alice?”

“Not quite.”

The darkness and the silence hang heavy on all of them.

“Why are you here?” Leo questions, breaking the silence.

“I… I’m lost.” she responds, helplessly.

“Do you know where you were going?” Oz asks. The little smile that he offers is tense, but friendly enough to make the girl look at him.

“I don’t remember.” she winces. “My cat...” she glances down at Nepeta by her feet and cracks a smile of her own. “He came to call for me. His jingling bell...”

“She says it’s her cat...” Leo murmurs in the direction of Elliot’s ear. Nightray ignores him, or, at least, ignores replying to him directly.

“What do you mean ‘your cat’?”

Alyss looks up at him like she doesn’t quite understand. Nepeta walks up closer to her side.

“Cheshire.”

“Meow.”

“Told you!”

There’s laughter in Alice’s voice and she sticks her tongue out at Elliot. Surprisingly, this makes Alyss chuckle slightly. Oz, too.

“My, my, Elliot, how do you feel about your lame name choices now?”

“It was Leo’s idea!” Elliot snaps exasperated. Leo turns away from him, then shrugs, pretending to completely ignore the situation.

“Cheshire is a nice name, I guess...” Gilbert murmurs into nowhere, hazed.

“And whose side are you on?!”

They banter for a moment more, and they only stop when the cat lets out a particularly long meow. Oz stands from the couch then, stretching.

“Hey, Elliot...”

“Mhm?”

“How about we help Alyss get back home?”

Elliot blinks slowly, then snorts. “That’s the noble thing to do, isn’t it?”

Oz’s grin grows wider and he turns to face the ghost girl, Alyss, who’s looking up at them with something resembling hope in her eyes.

‘Hope’ sounds like it should be a weird look on a ghost, but on her young innocent face it looks completely natural.

“Hey, Alyss.” Oz crouches down to be on the same level with her. “My name is Oz. This is Alice,” his friend offers a huge grin of her own. “the scaredy cat back on the couch is Gilbert,” he looks like he wants to disagree but knows better than that. “and these are Elliot and Leo.” Elliot gives a little nod and Leo raises his hand. Oz scratches Nepeta behind an ear, and the cat purrs in delight. “Cheshire is a nice name for a cat.”

“He’s always been so loyal to me.” Alyss says, a little smile tugging at her lips. “Almost like a little knight, I liked to think that he wants to protect me from all harm. Maybe this is his last attempt...”

The girl stops to look affectionately at the cat.

“What were you saying about a bell, Alyss?” asks Oz after a few seconds.

“I can hear it. The soft, jingling sound...” she closes her eyes for a second and turns her head, as if listening in. “You want me to follow it..?”

“Meow.”

Elliot opens his mouth but then closes it, hesitating. Leo takes a step forward instead.

“Hey, princess, come here.” he taps lightly on the floor, and the cat comes running to his hand. “Here you go. Now, let’s help out grumpy papa Elliot here, shall we?”

“What are you—” Elliot flushes, turning around abruptly, unable to finish the sentence. Oz and Alice burst into a fit of giggling at his expression.

“Come on, your turn.”

Elliot side-eyes him but says nothing more, instead he lowers himself down and looks at the cat, who’s been staring at him for a moment now after Leo’s words, unblinking.

“Hey, Nepeta. Or… Cheshire, is it? Can you lead us to the bell?”

The cat doesn’t reply. It walks past Elliot, its tail brushing against his legs, and at first Elliot wants to pull on an offended expression, that is before he realises that the cat — whichever name it goes by right now — is heading towards the exit of the apartment. Upon the realization, Elliot smiles.

“Good kitty.”

“Come along now, everyone.”

“You too, Alyss.”

“Following the cat… There’s a ghost in the apartment, and we’re going to follow the c-cat…”

“There, there, Gilbert.”

They exit the apartment, then the building altogether. Cheshire is rushing in front of everyone, sometimes stopping to listen in to the sounds that are audible to him and Alyss alone. Then he turns around another corner. Elliot and Leo are following right behind, the former eying the little thing with a weird mix of emotion. At some points, Cheshire eyes him back. Gilbert is the next one in line, his pace wobbly but looking more pulled together than he was back in the living room. Part of that might be the effect of the cold winter air, along with the fact that Alice is pulling him forward by the sleeve, practically skipping and whispering encouraging ‘come on, seaweed!’ every once in awhile.

Oz and Alyss follow behind.

“...Thank you.” the girl says, quietly, looking at the backs of the people in front of her, all of them making a bright, loud, warm scene that contrasts in the dark cold evening.

Oz turns to look at her, a sheepish smile on his face. “I don’t think any of us are waiting for gratitude, really. It’s all good, so don’t worry.”

The girl gives a small smile back at him. “You seem very calm about this. Why?” She asks with a curious look.

He thinks about it for a moment, then shrugs. “Unbelievable stuff like this is best to accept, this way you can understand the situation better. There was once a time that— nevermind.” He shakes his head, “Is just something my uncle used to say.”

Alyss looks at him, her gaze transparent, unsure of what to say. Then, she stretches her hand towards him and gives his a gentle squeeze. Oz looks surprised for a second, then smiles at her, teeth visible. He spares her a glance, then takes a long look at the backs of his friends and turns it up into the night sky.

“You look so much like her” He points at  _ his  _ Alice. “And at the same time you are so different.” he struggles for a bit before finishing. “I just feel… If I had you in my life, I wouldn’t want to lose you.”

They spend a few more minutes on their way, and when they finally stop, they find themselves in front of an ancient looking tree in the nearby park. Cheshire sits down there, not turning to face the group. They look at the scene in silence, though Alice breaks it almost immediately.

“...Seaweed, did you bring a spade?”

“Wh— Why would I even have that?!”

“Well, obviously, we’re going to have to dig under this tree now!” she looks at him like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “How are we gonna do that without a spade, huh?!”

“And how is that my problem? I— I’m not sure this is even a problem at all!”

Alyss ignores their banter, sliding past the two and getting down onto her knees in front of the cat again. She whispers something quietly enough that the others can’t hear, and it looks as though the cat replies to her, bowing and shaking its head, although its face is still turned towards the tree. Elliot furrows his brows when Alyss lifts her head to look him in the eyes, but, to his surprise, she gives him a little smile.

“Take care of her, would you?”

Elliot doesn’t really get it, but he finds himself nodding in response.

“It’s up in the tree. The bell. I remember this place, too.” she runs her fingers along the tree trunk, an expression of nostalgia on her face. 

Oz, taking that this is where they part ways, takes a step towards her, and sits down onto the grass to take her hands into his. “Take care.”

As the others step forward as well, a farewell on the tips of their tongues, Cheshire jumps up onto the tree, climbing to the top of the trunk and inside a hollow in the middle of it. Elliot watches the cat go, watches it disappear into the darkness amongst the leaves, and, when it emerges, there is an old-looking collar on its neck with a jingling bell attached to it.

A bell rings softly, and Alyss gets up, looking at the top of the tree. Another ghostly figure comes down and holds her tightly. The figure looks like a boy, with his shaggy hair covering one of his eyes. The young man starts to spin her around while she lets soft giggles escape her mouth.

“Meow!”

Elliot and the rest get distracted by the sound coming from the tree, and when they lower their eyes back to the ground, the couple has disappeared without a trace.

The group falls to a silent hesitation, unsure on what to do next.

“Meow!” calls the cat again.

Elliot looks up again, getting worried.

“...She’s never been so high before!.. Ugh. Gilbert!”

Gill looks at him in horror, knowing exactly what he’s asking him to do. He gulps the fear and nervousness down and, with a slow, but steady pace, gets under the branch where the cat sits. With a face that has ‘regret’ written all over his face, Gil looks up.

“Here, kitty, kit—”

The cat jumps straight into his face, clenching its claws to steady itself from the trembling movements and the whimpering of the man. He looks like he is about to pass out.

“Nice job, Gil!” Oz cheers, rushing over to steady him. Alice, laughing so hard that there are tears in her eyes, gives him a couple of pats on the back.

“...N-Nepeta?” Elliot calls with hesitation.

The cat blinks at him, lets out a whining meow and jumps down right into Elliot’s arms. The bell on her neck gives another ring in the process.

“Hey, girl, it’s okay.”

Leo walks up to Elliot, a calm smile in his face, as if the events that occurred were the most normal thing to do on a Friday night. Softly, he scratches Nepeta between the ears.

“You did a great job, princess, papa is proud of you.” he says, a teasing tone in his voice. Then he looks back at Elliot with a small smile. “I guess now we don’t have to bother getting her a new collar. I think I like this one.”

Elliot smiles back at him. “Yeah. Me too.”


End file.
